a canadian startup

Customer Service: Validating Emotions, and Owning the Problem

No matter how well trained you are at customer service, it’s never fun to take a call from an angry customer. How you react to a customer’s frustration, I think, separates good service from great service.

At our company, we start by remembering that we’ve all been on the other side of the call: everyone has been in a situation where a company does something that doesn’t make sense.

When a customer calls a company regarding a problem, their first task is often to convince the customer service representative that there is a problem in the first place. This usually comes from past experience: phone representatives all too often blame customers, disregarding what the customer is actually going through.

As a result, “I am not crazy, this is really happening!” is, sadly, the first part to many customer service calls.

If you care about your customers, let’s do things differently.

At Well.ca we have ideas on how to resolve problems that make things easier on our customer service people AND our customers.

VALIDATE FEELINGS

The very first thing we do on a call, when a customer is angry about something (for example, when Canada Post loses a package), is to validate their feelings. We use phrases like:

• “Your package hasn’t arrived yet? It’s been 5 days — that’s much too long.”
• “You have a right to be angry”

TAKE OWNERSHIP AND BE ANGRIER THAN THEY ARE

As I mentioned before, a customer’s first goal is to make you accept that there is indeed a problem. This is often the source of their anger: the customer believes that by using an angry tone, you will be more likely to take their issue seriously. Our secret to removing this anger is by being even more angry about the situation than they are! We will say:

• “If I was in your position, I would be angry. This is unacceptable!”
• “I am sorry about that — that’s horrible. I also appreciate that your kindness when you have the right to be very angry.”

The idea here is to show that you are so concerned about the situation, that they no longer have to be frustrated: they’ve found someone that will take over the process to find a resolution to the problem with stronger passion than they had in the first place.

But before you do that, you must take ownership. It’s easy: just give them your name and *direct* contact information and state that you’re going to personally fix the problem. Say:

• “John, I am going to fix this problem, don’t worry. First of all, my name is Ali, that’s spelled ‘A-L-I’, and my direct number is 555-5555. I am going to fix this.”

EASE FEELINGS OF POWERLESSNESS

Another reason for frustration in the customer’s mind is that they will likely be fearful that the company will try to solve the problem with a half-way, band-aid solution. The customer feels powerless because the company has their money, and has all control. Even with the best possible resolution the company can offer, the customer may still lose out a bit. As a result, customer feels like they have to enter into a sparring match with the customer service rep, and the customer must fight strategically from the beginning to end to get a desirable outcome.

Toss out out the possibility of a sparring match right from the beginning by telling the customer that, regardless of suggested paths of resolution that the company is about to offer, in the end, the company is willing to refund all the customer’s money and pay shipping both ways.

Once you’ve said this, the customer becomes at ease. When both parties are at ease, you can focus on the issue while setting realistic expectations.

We use phrases like:

• “Just to let you know, John, if you don’t get your order, or if it takes too long, we can do a full refund and pay for the return shipping. But before we get to that point, let me try a few things. I’ve seen this before: the first step is to call Canada Post and find out where that package is.”

A CUSTOMER CAN HAVE UNREASONABLE EXPECTATIONS BUT REASONABLE FEELINGS

There are times, however, when a customer will have an unreasonable expectation. For example, you can clearly say something will take 3 days to deliver, and they will call you the next morning, angry that the product hasn’t arrived.

When these situations happen, it is important to validate the customer’s feelings based on their assumptions. You can say:

• “I see what you mean. If I was expecting a product in a day, but it took two days, I would be frustrated too. Our site does explain that products take up to three days in your area, but don’t worry, let me see what I can do…”

OFFER CHOICES, NOT CONCESSIONS

Unreasonable customers will often make demands. You may be tempted to negotiate and make counter-offers. They may say, for example, that they want their money back right away, before the product arrives. The trick here is to take control of the situation before it ever gets to this stage. As soon as you recognize the issue, identify it, validate it, and offer at least two choices of resolution.

TO CONCLUDE

All of this comes from a simple idea: every time you think of an angry, demanding customer, try to think about a time when you were on the other side. How would you have liked to have been treated?

You have no idea of the magical power of agreeing that the problem sucks: as soon as you admit that the situation is lousy, a switch will turn in the head of your customer and all of sudden the conversation changes. Many of our kindest “I love your company” emails come from people that originally called with a problem.

This is the new generation of customer service: where your customer service reps are no longer agents “on the inside” defending the company. Rather, every customer service person becomes a bridge, an agent who works on behalf of the customer, with the goal of giving them the best experience possible. This happens by empowering your customer service people and soaking them in this culture from day one.

The notion of the customer feeling like there is power gap between the customer service reps “on the inside” and powerless customers on the outside is something you want to change. Companies traditionally do this by creating a single office of an ombudsman: a person that is independent enough to justly represent both the company and the customer without fear of losing their job for doing what’s fair.

This is the new generation of customer service: every customer service person is an individual ombudsman – fair, empowered with autonomy, impartial, and empathetic.